Rehabilitation Physiotherapy and Femoroacetabular Impingement

Abstract

Introduction: During the last 20 years the treatment of acetabular impingement has been surgical; however, conservative management and the application of individualized physiotherapy protocols have been proposed as treatment for femoroacetabular impingement. This is essential to re-establish joint function.

Objective: To compare the results between rehabilitation physiotherapy of femoroacetabular impingement and surgical treatment.

Methods: The article was divided into concepts to facilitate the bibliographic review of the last 5 years in the Pubmed database with the MeSH system, Embase, Cochrane Library, Medline and BVS. The keywords used in the search engine, combined with the AND operator were “femoroacetabular impingement”, “fhysiotherapy AND femoroacetabular impingement”, “femoroacetabular impingement treatment”, “Non-operative Management of Femoroacetabular Impingement”.

Analysis and synthesis of the information: All meta-analyzes, randomized and controlled clinical trials, prospective studies and review articles comparing surgical treatment versus rehabilitation physiotherapy in the treatment of femoroacetabular impingement syndrome were included in the review, as well as those that propose physiotherapy as an initial treatment option for femoroacetabular impingement, in order to demonstrate the degree of benefit that physiotherapy management has compared to surgery.

Conclusions: Rehabilitation physiotherapy offers a beneficial effect for the improvement of symptoms, which allows the reduction of hip pain, in addition to restoring the function and strength of the joint.